Audi A4 2.0T FSI Multitronic Test Drive Review

In a perfect world, I would own an Audi A4 2.0T Multitronic and it would be sitting in my parking lot everyday, just like the picture above. But the world is not perfect, but a good compromise would be a test drive so I can bring to you my thoughts on the latest B7 Audi A4 2.0T Multitronic, powered by the 2.0 liter TFSI engine of the Volkswagen Golf GTI fame. I managed to do quite a comprehensive test drive, covering traffic jams, parking lots, dry straights, dry bends, wet straights, wet windy roads, day and night. Check out the test drive report after the jump.



Audi is one of the few German manufacturers who uses front wheel drive, as compared to BMW and Mercedes Benz who use mainly RWD platforms. The Audi A4 first made it’s world debut in 1995 with the B5, sharing a platform with the 4th gen Volkswagen Passat. It came with a wide variety of engine options, from a 1.6 liter petrol to the largest 2.8 liter V6 30V petrol. There were also 1.9 and 2.5 liter turbodiesel engines. Then in the year 2000 came the 2nd generation based on the B6 platform, which also introduced a cabriolet body form in addition to the previously available sedan and estate bodies. With the B6, Audi introduced Multitronic, a CVT gearbox which replaced the Tiptronic automatic transmission on front wheel drive models. The models equipped with Quattro all-wheel drive continued using the Tiptronic automatic transmission.

The Audi A4 2.0T Multitronic is the next generation B7, which is actually a reengineered B6 chassis. The test car came in red, and I found that it’s design had plenty of road presence. Perhaps it’s also partly due to the fact that there are much less A4s on the road as compared to the E90 BMW 3-series. The front carries Audi’s new single shield grille from the Nuvolari concept, flanked by two Xenon HID projector headlamps. Move on to the sides of the car and it’s muscular stance is accentuated by it’s high shoulder lines and flared wheel arches. The fat-looking rear is typical Audi, but this time the brake lamps extend onto the bootlid. The brake lamps look like two eagle heads looking at the four overlapping rings in the middle of the boot. The design of the front headlamps somewhat echo the same shape, though the eagle’s necks have been elongated. It looks like curves have replaced straight lines with Audi’s new design direction. Oh, and looks are deceiving, open the boot lid and you’ll find a bigger boot space than you’d expect. More on that later. The big wheels fill up the wheel arches with minimal gap!
The car is a front engined, front wheel drive car and has it’s engine mounted longitudinally, which explains why the A4 has Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG), or rather S-Tronic in Audi lingo is missing from it’s line-up. Borg-Warner has not developed a DSG transmission for longitudinal engine bay layouts yet. The newly released A3, based on the Golf Mk5 chassis uses a transverse engine layout, so it benefits from the ability to have DSG/S-Tronic. So the front-wheel drive Audi A4 makes do with Audi’s Multitronic CVT transmission that comes with manual shift function with 7 pre-set virtual gears. You can control manual shifting via pushing the gear lever up and down, or via paddle shifts on the steering wheel. Not that I am complaining about the unavailability of DSG, the Multitronic paired with the good low end torque of the 2.0 TFSI engine is excellent.








The Audi A4 2.0T Multitronic’s 2.0 liter FSI Turbo engine should be no stranger to most of you. It is the same engine featured in the Volkswagen Golf GTI. Just look at the torque curve above, max torque of 280Nm peaks at a low 1,800rpm and remains constant all the way up to 5,000rpm, where it begins to dip. Very broad powerband. Peak horsepower is 200hp at 5,100rpm. For a turbocharged engine, it has a very high compression ratio of 10.5:1, thanks to it’s FSI direct injection. At idle, you can hear the clattering noise that was once associated with diesel engines, but now has become the norm for any direct injection engine, no matter diesel or petrol. 0-100km/h takes 7.3 seconds, and top speed is 235km/h. I did not test either claims, due to lack of equipment and road.

I took the Audi A4 out on a spin through some windy roads in the dry. There was understeer, and if you put down too much throttle when the car is pointing anywhere but straight, there will be some wheel spin but the car’s ESP stability control kicks in, with the orange ESP light flashing on the meter panel. Torque steer is apparent when you gun the throttle. As usual with a front wheel drive there is under steer during hard cornering, but as most of us grow up driving front wheel drive cars it is our second nature to know how to control it. Body roll is noticeable during hard cornering but nothing alarming. The suspension was what I expected from the car, not anything too sporty and harsh, though there is an optional stiffer Sports suspension package for the Audi A4 in world markets. Ride was comfortable, though I don’t know how this compares to it’s C-class and 3-series rivals as I haven’t tested them before. It was very quiet from the inside too, engine sound is muffled sufficiently and there is no rolling tyre noise. The car is much louder from the outside. If you want an Audi that gives you a much better driving experience in terms of handling, get the A4 Quattro instead with the 40:60 rear-biased all wheel drive system.



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